The NYT Mini Crossword answers today for Monday, August 17, 2026 are EGGS, SQUAT, PUTTY, EASEL and CLYDE across, and EQUAL, GUTSY, GATED, STYLE and SPEC down.
If you want to solve it yourself, the hints below give you a way in without spoiling the grid. The full Mini Crossword clues and answers follow underneath.
NYT Mini Crossword Hints Today, August 17, 2026
- Two answers in this grid are things you make in a kitchen and things you do in a gym, and they sit directly on top of each other.
- One clue is a single character long. It is the shortest clue on the board and one of the terser ones the Mini runs.
- The quotation marks on 6 Across are doing all the work. Think brand name, not adjective.
- 5 Down is the only four letter entry besides 1 Across, which tells you where the single black square has to be.
- If 4 Down defeats you, ignore it. Every one of its letters is handed to you by an across answer.
NYT Mini Crossword Answers Today – Across
| Clue | Answer |
|---|---|
| 1A. Brownie ingredients | EGGS |
| 5A. Gym rep on leg day | SQUAT |
| 6A. “Silly” stuff | PUTTY |
| 7A. Stand for a painter | EASEL |
| 8A. Bonnie and ___, classic crime couple | CLYDE |
NYT Mini Crossword Answers Today – Down
| Clue | Answer |
|---|---|
| 1D. = | EQUAL |
| 2D. Courageous | GUTSY |
| 3D. Fenced in, as a private community | GATED |
| 4D. What “each of us already has, all we need to do is find it,” per Diane von Furstenberg | STYLE |
| 5D. Contractor’s detail, for short | SPEC |
Today’s Mini Crossword Explained
Monday is the gentlest day of the Mini week, and this grid shows why. Only one clue asks for anything beyond plain definition, and the construction quietly makes sure it cannot stop you. That clue is 4 Down, the Diane von Furstenberg quotation, which wants an abstract personal quality rather than a thing you can picture. It fills to STYLE, and every letter of it arrives free from the across entries: the S from EGGS, the T from SQUAT, the Y from PUTTY, the L from EASEL and the E from CLYDE. A solver who never reads the quote finishes the word anyway.
The grid is unusually dense for a Mini. A single black square sits in the top left corner, which leaves 24 of the 25 cells checked in both directions and gives 1 Across and 5 Down their shared four-letter length. That density is what makes the puzzle forgiving. Guess wrong anywhere, and a crossing corrects you almost immediately.
The cleverest moment is 6 Across, where the quotation marks around “Silly” turn an adjective into half a brand name and the answer becomes PUTTY. The tersest is 1 Down, clued with nothing but an equals sign. It is a reminder that the Mini can be difficult without using a single word.
Still working through today’s set? Our Wordle answer for August 17, NYT Connections answers for puzzle #1163 and Strands hints and spangram for #897 are all live.
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